Fifty young people passionate about technology, journalism, and communication took part in the hackathon “Solutions for combating disinformation in the online environment”, held between February 27 and March 1 2026, where they developed digital tools designed to identify and counter false information online.

Over the course of three days, the participants, divided into 10 teams, developed functional prototypes under the guidance of mentors from the IT sector. The solutions created included fact-checking tools, artificial intelligence-based applications, and platforms that analyze online content.

Dumitrița, one of the participants, presented the chatbot developed by her team:
“Our chatbot is a Telegram bot that takes information from the user, processes it through several filters, and quickly provides a response about how credible the information is.”

Some teams developed solutions based on artificial intelligence to analyze articles and online content. Yaroslav Stolovski, one of the winners, said their project can analyze links, headlines, or discussions from forums to determine whether the information is false.

“We used a version of artificial intelligence that we trained with specific instructions. It can analyze links to articles, headlines, or forum discussions. Users simply insert them into the chat, and the system indicates whether the information is fake or not”, he explained.

For many participants, the experience was intense. “For me, it was the first experience of this kind. It was challenging, with two sleepless nights, but also very interesting. I learned what I could improve and how the entire process works from the inside”, said Stanislav Yarikov, one of the winners.

According to the organizers, the event was designed to find real solutions to the problem of online disinformation. “We believe that our community can develop and implement solutions to real problems. Disinformation is one of the biggest challenges we all face, and through this hackathon we wanted to bring people together to find ways to better understand what reliable information is and what is not”, said Pavel Curcovici, manager of Tekwill Bălți.

Before the hackathon, participants attended two preparatory meetups. The first focused on the social impact of disinformation and the role of journalism, while the second addressed the technical aspects of developing software solutions.

At the end of the competition, the jury announced the winners, who received prizes of 15,000 MDL, 10,000 MDL, and 5,000 MDL, respectively:

• 1st place – Truth HUB
• 2nd place – ETW TEAM
• 3rd place – Lumina Digitală

The organizers hope that the projects developed during the hackathon will continue to be improved and eventually transformed into useful tools for combating disinformation in the online space.